In Jamaica, the first Maroons were the indigenous Tainos, a group of Arawak people that migrated from South and Central America. They moved to the hills when the Spanish invaded Jamaica in 1494. A number of the first Africans that were brought into Jamaica by the Spanish, 1513 onwards, moved straight to the hills. They came into contact with and lived among the Tainos.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the word Maroon as “a member of a black people living in parts of Suriname and the West Indies descended from runaway slaves”. It is important to state here that the first Taino and African Maroons in Jamaica were never slaves. They saw the signs of things to come and acted speedily to get away from it. The growing number of runaway slaves, however, later expanded the Maroon groups across the island. The main Maroon settlements were the interior mountains in the parish of Clarendon, which later moved to the Cockpit Mountains in Trelawny, and the Blue Mountains in the eastern parishes of Portland and St. Thomas.
The lifestyle of the early Maroons was a combination of Taino and African traditions, which were similar in many ways. There was a chief and a council of elders. They spoke several languages - the most common was called Kramanti, which was similar to the Twi language of the Asante people of Ghana. Their main contact with the outside was their secret trade in jerk pork with the Spanish resistance, which extended to Cuba, and trade with the pirates for who jerk pork was a favourite.
Boys aged 14 and above went with the men to hunt wild hog. They used dogs to locate and chase the pigs. This was a gruelling and dangerous activity as the Maroons had to keep up with the chase through gullies, over boulders, under bushes and across streams. When the pig slowed down from exhaustion, it was speared in the heart. The pig was then deboned, salted, and seasoned with pimento, pepper and herbs before jerked on pimento wood for up to six hours. Men were generally responsible for the heavy clearing and tilling of the land. Women did the weeding and everyone participated in harvesting the crops.
Women were well respected - they were mothers, wives and farmers and the first teachers of the young. Women also participated in providing leadership and direction for their clan, for example Queen Nanny who was also known as Granny Nanny, Champong Nanny and Grandy Nanny. She was a spiritual leader, fighter and strategist.
Like among the Tainos, age was respected among the Maroons. Children were taught to respect their elders, community leaders and chief. Their education was through story telling, to learn their cultural traditions, and observation and participation, to learn bush survival. As the children grew older, they helped to clear the land for cultivation and were responsible for feeding the poultry.
